The
WarBirds Full Install contains all aircraft, ground vehicles and terrains.

The
Full Install is the same as the Minimum Install plus the Minimum to Full Install package.

Web Installer

The Web Installer package can be used to both download the full install (in small pieces) or update an older version to the newest version. Mandatory updates must be installed to fly in the online arenas, optional updates are voluntary.

Clear
your browser's cache and defragment your hard drive. Check to make sure you have enough space on your hard drive to download the file (you'll need around 900 MB for WarBirds).

To
clear out the temp directory safely:

Close all programs except for the Windows desktop.

Open
the Windows directory on your C drive, and then the Windows\Temp directory.

Select
all files (not the folders), and then right-click and select Delete from the drop-down menu.

Note: Take care to only erase the files in the Windows\Temp directory, not the files in your Windows directory.

Make sure there are no other programs running in the background especially anti-virus programs, firewalls and download "helpers
/ accelerators". Do not use download "helpers" like Real download, gozilla etc.

Some
"helpers" do work well for those using dialup connections,
they are:

Q.
My download will not unstuff without an error or hangs when I use Stuffit Expander.

A.
Please use the latest version of Stuffit Expander to expand
these files. If you have difficulties unstuffing this file
use the most recent Free version of Stuffit Expander available
from Aladdin
Systems .

Q.
I have an Apple Macintosh and get an error when WarBirds
tries to load.

A.
Make sure the resolutions / bits you choose are the same
as your monitor settings and that you have the required hardware listed in
the System
Requirements. Also allot the recommended amount of memory to the game. Virtual
Memory should be turned ON.

You
have to make sure QuickTime and QuickDraw are loaded as extensions
when running WarBirds (OpenGL requires them). This is
what is used for the drawing routines. After you've established
that WarBirds works, you can start trimming extensions
with Extension Manager until you find a minimum set that still
works. (it will improve your framerate overall).

A.
On a Macintosh some textures show up as white. Whenever OpenGL
doesn't have enough memory to load a texture, it comes out
as white. Try increasing your virtual memory, and see if the
white areas are still there. Then, if they aren't, you can
lower the VRAM for performance reasons.

It
appears OpenGL is running out of memory to hold its texture
cache in system memory. Memory is shared between OpenGL and
the application so giving more to the application takes it
away from OpenGL. OpenGL renders in white if the texture isn't
loaded.

It
seems each Macintosh graphics artifact can be traced back
to a texture load fail due to memory so only one thing has
to be fixed to correct them all, fortunately. We're working
on reducing the memory requirements.

A.
There are some known graphics anomalies on the Radeon and
GeForce 3D cards on the Macintosh at this time. We are working
with Apple, NVidia and ATI to resolve these issues.

In
addition, certain combinations of NVidia cards, drivers, and
openGL versions require users of such cards to allocate more
memory to the WarBirds application. If you use an NVidia
card and are getting crashes or a black screen upon pressing
the FLY button in the main UI (user interface), allocate an
extra 60-80 megs to the WarBirds application to fix this.

A.
USB Game controllers each need their own bus to function properly.
If you are connecting multiple USB devices off of a USB hub,
you may sometimes have one or more of these devices
cease functioning during the game. The only known solution
to this right now is to purchase and install a two or four
port expansion PCI card.

Alternate
Z-buffer: Usually this would refer
to forcing W-buffering. You don't need to mess with it.

Fog
Table Emulation: This is for 3D
chips that don't support looking up the fog level by distance
from the camera per pixel. Instead it emulates it by looking
up the fog level at each vertex in the table and interpolating
it... don't worry about it; we don't require a table fog.

Overclocking
the GPU (Graphics Processor Unit) :Be
very careful here... overclocking will usually cause the
chip to overheat and the game to crash.

Other
BIOS settings on the mobo such as AGP speed, aperature etc:
4X AGP speed is best. Aperature:
most stable setting seems to be 128 even on systems with
more than 256 RAM.

Some system configurations might produce only 15fps that should
be exceeding 60fps. Reduced frame rates can occur for many
different reasons here are the most common:

If you have a VIA chipset on the motherboard, INSTALL THE
DRIVERS FOR THE MOTHERBOARD. Look for newer AGP drivers
(sometimes part of the 4 in 1 driver set). Without the additional
drivers installed you will never get full performance.

Interrupt conflicts can cause a major performance drop.
Make sure none of the interrupts overlap. DMA conflicts
are also possible. Use Device Manager in Control panel/System
to verify there are no conflicts.

Make sure AGP is enabled. GeForce cards will drop to 1/4
performance if AGP isn't working. Check the DirectX diagnostics
(Start/Run dxdiag) to see if AGP is enabled.

Just
as a sanity check, we're running debug builds on a P2-400
with a G400 at 30 fps. GeForce cards and release builds do
even better. Please ensure your system meets or exceeds the
system requirements as listed above. Also, if you have a Radeon
or a GeForce, you should be selecting the T&L HAL otherwise
all transforms will be done on the CPU. These cards are designed
to get better performance when the T&L pipeline is used
(less traffic on the AGP bus).

Updated
drivers for video cards can be obtained from each manufactuer's
website.

Other
Programs Running in the Background

Other
programs running in the background can also cause performance
or interface problems.

Turn
off animated cursors, transition effects in display properties
(Win2k and XP), and any other large programs currently running,
any special anti-virus or system maintenance utilities (such
as system restore and system maintenance under Windows ME),
any crash protection software, any ICQ or EMail programs or
web browsers running in the background prior to starting the
game.

You
can use the End
It All program to turn most off. This program is freely
available on the internet.

If
using Microsoft Plus! software, choose the Windows Standard
Desktop Theme prior to starting the game (you can switch back
to your preferred theme after exiting the game). If using
Microsoft Intellipoint software, turn off the Pointer Wrap
feature for your mouse prior to starting the game.

A.
4n1 drivers are available at the
VIA website, they are required for proper performance of your
VIA motherboard AGP video card.

Go
to VGA mode by using the "advanced" button on General tab
page of MSCONFIG.EXE. There you will see a checkbox for VGA
640 x 480. Check it, reboot and you'll come back in VGA mode
ready for installation of the 4-in-1's.

After
that's done, uncheck that same checkbox, but do not reboot;
instead, re-install your video card drivers of choice and
reboot only once they are installed.

A.
This is a Z-Buffer artifact. At
a distance from the camera you lose precision in the depth
determination so polygons "fight" over the same pixel, very
slight changes in the camera position and orientation cause
the choice to switch from frame to frame. We're still looking
for a good way to eliminate it, but for now stay away from
16-bit Z-Buffers to minimize it.

Note:
NVidia hardware ALWAYS uses a 16-bit Z-Buffer if the video
mode is not also 32-bit. Running in a window with the desktop
less than 32-bit will also select a 16-bit zbuffer. The GeForce
2 MX and GeForce 3 supposedly have this fixed, but we haven't
tested it; and prefer the 32-bit frame buffer for nicer graphics
(the frame rate hit is barely noticeable.)

A.
Lower the Hardware acceleration mode for the graphics from
Windows Display Properties and from within any Driver specific
tweak tabs. The sounds are loaded on the first sortie, but
after that must be reloaded, with full hardware acceleration
and optimal performance settings enabled for the graphics,
the graphics take precedence and the sounds are secondary.

A.
If you are new to WarBirds you may want to select the EZ-Mode
of flight as you start to learn the WarBirds flight model.
In Real-Mode you are confronted with life-like torque and
other realistic flight dynamics.

Online,
take advantage of FREE training from some of our best pilots
- check out the Training
Pages.

A.
WarBirds

In
the game press F12 to center the stick before flying.

Run
the game, then go to Setup then Stick. Make
sure the stick defaults are loaded for testing before tweaking.
Change ONE input slider at a time to setup, fly, then go back
and do another one. Slider, dampening etc. are all particular
to the individual stick, computer and Pilot. There are no
hard and fast rules. Generally, many pilots graduate their
stick scaling from say 10 or 20 up to the max through the
ranges ( ie 20,40,60,80,100 etc. ) roll is normally left at
100 through all ranges .

Damper
settings lessen input responsiveness, Deadbands define the
area of NO input beginning from the center position (helps
with spiking sticks). Dampening and deadbands are absolutely
particular to the individual stick as they are corrective
measures for stick reaction OR pilot flying style. Leave the
deadband alone unless you have "dead" areas in your stick
when it is placed in the center position. If there is play
increase the deadband until you are comfortable with the reaction
of the stick. Dampening will assist you if you tend to jerk
the stick around.

If
the stick USB make sure you are running at least Win 98 Second
Edition, earlier versions of Windows have USB issues.

The actual recommended settings may be different depending
on your hardware and flying style. Click
here to view a sample stick setting.

A.
Here is one way of mapping procedure, but there are o thers.
This gives a quick 2 stickset
configuration that gives a set of views on the MS sidewinder.
There is also an explanation of how
to change keyboard commands. Various sticks may need
different procedures, but this quick tutorial may serve
as an "oh that's how it works" to start you off.

Legend:

c/o
= click on

p = "press to change control" button

pdp = press desired button on joystick

V = click on the down arrow on the box of choice i.e.
views,
gunnery, flight, misc.

Creating
2 sticksets for views: (can be applied to other functions)

Starting
from default installation values:

c/o
copy set , copy from Set 1 to Set 2, Ok, Yes (now all the
keyboard and joystick actions that are active in stickset
1 are now active in stickset 2).

V - misc. - highlight use stickset 2
P (choose control 2 if you wish to leave keyboard control
intact) if not clear, then P again and pdp.
You are now programming stickset 2 views:

c/o
Set 2 under stick/keyset
V - misc. - highlight use stickset 1
P (choose control 2 if you wish to leave keyboard control
intact) if not clear, then P again and pdp.

V
- view highlight Look back , clear control 2

Repeat for all views that will be used instead in stickset
1: LL , LR , LLF , LRF, LLB, LRB

V - view Highlight Look Back Up, P , use Select Hat button
or simply use your desired Hat button to program. Repeat
for all views that will be used in Stickset 2: LLU, LRU,
LLFU, LRFU, LLBU, LRBU

Program Look Up as desired.

Keyboard mapping:

c/o
Key Lookup depress key you want to program / deprogram , choose
clear and then program using your choice of the V boxes (
view, gunnery, flight, misc.)and assign as desired. You may
have to clear certain keys before reassigning them.

Note:
Your modem is likely configured for a maximum speed
of 115200 and hardware flow control. This is a problem
if the com port itself is set to 9600 with software flow
control.

To
correct this situation select the Port Settings tab,
and then change the bits per second to 115200 (if
your uart supports it,
if it gives you problem s set this higher then drop
it down to 115200).

Set
flow control to hardware. Next click on the Advanced
button.

FIFO
(First in First Out) buffers are a feature of modern UART's
(Universal Asynchronous Receiver Transmitter) . Any Pentium
class PC is likely to have at least a 16550 uart with 16
byte buffers. With todays fast CPU's you should have no
problem moving the Receive buffer all the way to
16 (reduce it back to 14 if you experence line drops).

Now
keep clicking Okay until you are back to your desktop.

Modem
Settings:

The
next step is to make sure that the modem is configured for
optimal performance.

Click
on Start then up to Settings and then Control
Panel.

Once
in the Control Panel, double-click on Modems.

Select
your modem and click Properties.

Make
sure the Maximum Speed is set to 115200 (57600 if
you have a 28.8 modem). Make sure that Only Connect At
This Speed is UNCHECKED.

Click
the connection tab. Ensure that you have 8 data bits,
Parity set to none and 1 stop bit.

Click
on Port Settings and increase the Receive buffers
up to 16, and click Okay.

Select
Advanced.

Make
sure that Use flow control is checked, and that Hardware
(RTS-CTS) is selected.

Make
sure that Use error control is unchecked.
If the phone line quality is poor, your modem may not be
able to establish a stable connection. If this happens,
reinstate the Use error control check mark, but be
sure to disable (remove the check mark for) Compress
Data.

Select
OK to return to the Properties window and apply the
new settings, and then select OK.

Other
modem settings adjustable via Modem "tweak" programs:

MTU

MTU or Maximum Transmission Unit is the largest TCP/IP
packet that your PC will send. Windows sets this as 1500
by default. 1500 is fine for LANs but the Internet standard
MTU is 576. You are better off having an MTU of 576 because
even if your own ISP also has an MTU of 1500 there is
no doubt that on thier journey accross the net your packets
will pass through routers that have an MTU of 576. When
this happens your packet becomes fragmented. That is to
say that your packet is broken down into smaller packets
and each one has it's own header added.

MSS

MSS or Maximum Segment Size is the maximum size of the
TCP/IP Packet minus the headers, this is the actual data
you are sending. The MSS ideally should be MTU -40 as
the header layer is 40 bytes. So for an MTU of 576 the
ideal MSS would be 536

RWIN

The RWIN or Recieve Window is the maximum amount of data
your computer is willing to receive at any one moment.
Setting this too high will mean a greater loss of data
if a packet is lost (this translates to lag in a game).
If it is set too low then it will be very slow (and the
game will lag). The RWIN should be an integer of MSS.
Ideally MSS X 2 4 6 8 or 10. The optimum is MSS x 4 which
in this example is 536 x 4 so the ideal RWIN is 2144.
You can try higher (i.e. MSS x 6) but remember, too high
and it will have the opposite effect of what you are trying
to acheive.

TTL

The TTL is the Time To Live for each packet or the maximumum
amount of hops the data will travel. In order to get from
one machine to another the data hops from 1 router to
another until it gets to its destination. The default
TTL is 32 which should be fine but we recommend a TTL
of 64.

A.
Run a trace route or (optimal) use Pingplotter
to determine where your connection problem lies. Check your
connections (cords) and modem / adapter settings. Do not use
a firewall and turn off all programs that are running in the
background.

How
to run a trace route:

Once
online, go to START on your Windows, then Programs, then
MS DOS Prompt. the prompt should read:

C:\Windows>

To
check for WarBirds Routes type tracert and any of the following
numbers (one per trace): { example: tracert wb06.ient.com
}

WW2A/WBIII
= wb06.ient.com

FO/HA = wb01.ient.com

SE arenas = rw01.ient.com

MA = wb04.ient.com

Exp = wb02.ient.com

ACA/TA/P&D/ = wb05.ient.com

That will give you the test of your connection to our site. It will be up to 30 hops; a hop being one portion of the journey your signal takes to reach us. Typically a trace will show 8 to 16 hops. There are columns of numbers with ms behind them at each hop; ms is time in milliseconds. Any time under
400 ms is fine, over 500 ms is not good. Times over 450 ms or if you see a * or it says timeout is very bad. We would recommend logging off in that case and see if you can get a better connection the next time or use a different ISP as that will give you a different path for the connection to follow.

A.
Your Login ID is what you use
to login into the game, for example john_doe, this information
is sent to you via email when you join IEN.

Callsigns,
also known as handles are how you are identified in the
game. It is a SIX letter (no spaces) name like skydvr
or -meha- . You choose this name the first time you login
to one of iEN's online arenas. CAPTIALS, spaces, = , +,
* and other special characters are reserved. Dashes may
be used in lieu of letters.

Dot
Commands are how you enter game perameters via the radio buffer
once you are in the game. Some commands can only be used offline
while others are enabled online. They can effect things such
as gameplay, offline AI and video settings among others.

To use Dot Commands open your radio buffer ( the "/"
key ) when in the game and enter the command. Don't forget
to include the " . " dot.

.aiattach
<ai host> <drone #> <pos #>

Attach
as a gunner to drone # under the command of ai host in
position number # (1 to 7).

.ailist

Gives
list of ai hosts and drones which can join as a gunner
using the .aiattach command.

.arnaflags

List
all the arena flags (settings) for the arena.

.barragem

Orders
the artillery to fire a barrage at the last spotting round
position.

.bglodrenderrange
<x>

Sets
the level of detail.

.bgminrenderrange
<x>

Sets
the minimum range in yards at which objects are rendered.

.clear

Clear
your score.

.conv x

Set convergence distance to x where x is 1 to 999..

.correct
xxx yyyy

Orders
the artillery to adjust their spot firing round by xxx
degrees from north, and by yyyy yards

.country
x

Tune
Radio 1 to country x where x is 1 (red), 2 (green), 3
(gold) or 4 (purple).

.cpu

Reports
the processor codepath in use.

.date
<xx yy zzzz> where xx is 1-12, yy=1-31, zzzz=1900-2999

Set
the date to month (xx), day (yy) and year (zzzz) to have
correctly positioned Sun, Moon and Stars.

.delay
xxx

Sets
the delay in milliseconds between each bomb in the salvo
where xxx is 50 to 1000.

.destroyall

Destroy all objects (except the tower) to begin the
takeover of a field quickly during testing.

.destroyob <x>

Destroys a single object given the object number x.

.e

Exit plane when at full stop (or while moving offline).

.ez

Enable EZ mode.

.field -1

Start in the Air.

.field x

Start at field x.

.fields

Shows
a list of fields, with their current ownership and status.

.flightstart <x pos> <y pos> <alt>

Start flight at designated coordinates and altitude.

.flushplanes

Unloads
and forces planeskins to reload (offline, in Tower only).

.fly

Fly.

.framemode
<x>

Enables
the graphical representation of the framerate when x =
2, returns to normal when x = 1.

.fuel <x>

Set the percentage of fuel carried by aircraft where x is 1-100.

.gamma
x.x

Adjust
brightness

.grndlabels

Display the ID of ground objects.

.handle
xxxx

Change
your handle to xxxx where xxxx can be up to 20 characters long.

.hl
xxxxxx

Player
xxxxxx's icon is colored white. This can only be done to friendlies.

.hls

All
members of your squad have their icons colored white,
as long as they are flying for the same country.

.hurtme <part>

Destroys the selected part (list below).

.ignore

List
all ignored players.

.ignore <xxxxxx>

Ignores player xxxxxx where xxxxxx is a player's callsign.

.invulnerable

Make aircraft invulnerable to weapon hits.

.lindablair

Toggles
3D panning view.

.listen
all

Start
receiving messages from all ignored players.

.listen <xxxxxxx>

Cancel ignoring player xxxxxx where xxxxxx is a player's
callsign.

.lodrender
<x>

Sets
the level of detail.

.masterview

Slave an observer's view to your own.

.minrender
<x>

Sets
the minimum range in yards at which objects are rendered.

.offtime

Set the time offline.

.pitchladder <x>

Displays the pitchladder when x is 1, doesn't when x is 0.

.privatearena <password>

Allows user to enter selected private arena, when they enter the correct password.

.radio

Display currently tuned channels.

.radio x yyy

Tunes Radio x to channel yyy.

.radiolines <x>

Number of radio buffer lines displayed where x is 1-64.

.radiowidth
<xxx>

Sets the radio width to xxx pixels, where x = 220 to screen resolution minus 32. Default is 440.

.rank

Displays the top 100 pilots.

.ros

Displays the roster for the current arena.

.runway <x>

Select runway x where x is -1 to n (-1 offline is an
air start and n depends on the number of entry points
at a given airfield).

.salvo xx

Sets number of bombs to drop with each key press when in salvo (pickle) mode.